Giannis Antetokounmpo was the league’s MVP in 2019 and 2020. Nikola Jokic won it in 2021, 2022, and 2024, with Joel Embiid claiming the award in 2023. Now, we can add Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to the list after being named the 2024-25 NBA MVP. These are the last seven winners of the NBA MVP award and the one thing they all share in common is that they are internationally-born talents. The NBA has seen tremendous growth not just in the league itself with the vast amount of talent existing but basketball’s global reach. So many countries around the world are sending elite-level basketball players to the United States, and the competition outside of America has increased drastically. If you need a reminder of this, look no further than the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, as Team USA with LeBron James, Stephen Curry, and Kevin Durant leading the way was pushed to their limits twice by Serbia and France. The NBA has drastically impacted the game of basketball in Europe, Africa, and Asia over the last decade, paving a path to the league acknowledging that some of the best players in the world come from outside the United States. If you want to find the last American-born NBA MVP, you have to go back to the 2017-18 season when James Harden won the award with the Houston Rockets. Before him, it was Russell Westbrook, Derrick Rose, Kobe Bryant, and those three future Hall of Famers who just led Team USA to a gold medal in the Olympics created an 11-year stretch where the MVP award went to an American player. Will this latest international streak be snapped in the near future? After all, more and more high-level international talents, who have been playing professionally since they were teenagers, are entering the NBA. The top three in this year’s MVP voting — Giannis, Jokic, and SGA — still have plenty of prime years left and they aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. Even so, there are still several USA-born MVP contenders across the NBA. Although some may still point to the legends of the game as those who could potentially end the international streak, Anthony Edwards obviously sticks out as the next face of USA Basketball and the NBA All-Star who could be the next American player to win the MVP award. Anthony Edwards is the obvious USA MVP choice… right? Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images Anthony Edwards is the clear choice to be the next American-born NBA MVP. At 23 years old, the Minnesota Timberwolves guard has led his team to the Western Conference Finals for the second straight season, and he has that level of swag to become the face of USA Basketball as the older generation retires. After all, he played a major role during the gold medal run in Paris alongside LeBron, Steph, and Durant — a period where those legends recognized his greatness. However, Edwards is solely focused on his journey as a young star in the NBA. He wants to win, and he isn’t worried about the label of “best American player” following him around. “[Being called the best American player]’s not something that I shoot for. I’m just trying to win with Minnesota. I don’t really care about that other stuff,” Edwards said in an interview with Yahoo Sports last summer. “It’d be cool to get an opportunity like that. I’m not really striving for it. I’m chillin’. If it happens, it happens. I just want to win with Minnesota.” This season, Edwards averaged 27.6 points, 5.7 rebounds, 4.5 assists, and 1.2 steals per game while shooting 44.7 percent from the floor and 39.5 percent from 3-point range. He led the league in total threes for the first time in his career and finished fourth in scoring behind the three finalists for NBA MVP. Of course, there are also all the comparisons being made of Edwards to a young Michael Jordan when he turned the Chicago Bulls into the best team in the NBA. Edwards has already started to do this over the last few seasons with the Timberwolves, and a championship in 2025 would surely cement his status as the future of USA Basketball. In terms of being the obvious choice to be the next American-born MVP, Edwards has his work cut out for him. Giannis and Jokic are still going to be All-NBA talents for at least the next decade, and Edwards is also going to run into Victor Wembanyama in the Western Conference for the remainder of his career. Ultimately, winning will play a factor in the MVP race given the amount of talent in the West, which is why the Timberwolves and Edwards have an edge right now. Over the last two seasons, Minnesota has won 105 games, the fifth-most in the league. A run to the top of the conference standings, potentially overthrowing Gilgeous-Alexander and the OKC Thunder, would surely boost Edwards’ MVP resume. At some point in his career, it seems likely that Edwards will win the MVP award. Will that come soon enough for him to break the international streak? Other than Edwards, we can’t overlook the greatness that still exists with James and Curry. What about the veteran Team USA leaders? Rob Schumacher-Imagn Images LeBron James is 40 years old. Stephen Curry just turned 37 in March. These two set the standard for this generation of NBA players, as their yearly battles in the NBA Finals birthed a new way for teams to put together their rosters and a new way for young players to mold their games. Although James and Curry are nearing the end of the line in two of the greatest careers of all time, they are still among the best players in the league today. In 70 games this season, LeBron averaged 24.4 points, 8.2 assists, and 7.8 rebounds per game while shooting 51.3 percent from the floor and 37.6 percent from 3-point range. James was receiving MVP consideration for quite some time this season due to his ability to still lead the Los Angeles Lakers, and his team finished as the 3-seed in the West. Now that he is playing alongside Luka Doncic, the Lakers’ overall potential has increased, meaning there is still an outside chance LeBron can compete for the NBA MVP award. As long as he is still in the league and putting up near triple-double numbers, James will draw attention in this race. Not to mention, putting the MVP award back in an American’s hands is surely something he will be thinking about. Curry may have a better chance at capturing another MVP award than James at this point in his career. The 37-year-old guard continues to elevate his play to new heights, and he has plenty of years left in the tank should he want to prolong his career with the Golden State Warriors. After trading for Jimmy Butler, the Warriors posted the third-best record in the NBA during the second half of the season, allowing them to make a run to the Western Conference Semifinals. Ultimately, Golden State fell to Edwards and the Timberwolves, as Curry was forced to watch from the sidelines with a hamstring injury. Butler’s arrival and the Warriors’ resurgence is no joke, as this team has proven they can be elite once more. If the Warriors are a top-four team in the Western Conference during the regular season, Curry will surely draw attention in the MVP race. He is the greatest shooter in basketball history, and the MVP moments he puts together on the court are unmatched, even by Gilgeous-Alexander, Jokic, and Antetokounmpo. Only one player in NBA history has ever been named the unanimous MVP of the league. That is Steph Curry, and he can still put up MVP-like numbers throughout the regular season. Other young American players drawing MVP attention Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images Outside of Edwards, several younger players around the NBA stand out as potential American-born MVP favorites. While he is going to spend the vast majority of the 2025-26 season recovering from a torn Achilles, Jayson Tatum is the biggest name standing out behind Edwards. The Boston Celtics won the 2024 NBA Finals, and this organization always seems to finds itself at the top of the Eastern Conference standings. What many tend to forget is that Tatum is still only 27 years old and has yet to hit the prime of his career. His Achilles injury is concerning and impact his movement down the line, but Tatum is going to bounce back and retain his All-NBA form. This season, Tatum finished fourth in the NBA MVP race behind Gilgeous-Alexander, Jokic, and Giannis. This is the fourth straight season in which Tatum has finished inside the top six in the MVP voting. The best player on the best team in the league oftentimes receives a lot of attention in the MVP race, making Tatum another key American-born player worth discussing. There is then a group consisting of Paolo Banchero, Tyrese Haliburton, Donovan Mitchell, and Cade Cunningham. Banchero would have likely received MVP consideration this season if he had not suffered an oblique injury, which forced him to miss half the year. The Orlando Magic forward averaged 25.9 points and 7.5 rebounds per game while shooting 45.2 percent from the floor in his third NBA season. The Magic are a team on the rise in the East, and Banchero is their fearless leader who has proven to be a top-10 scoring weapon. Haliburton, like Edwards, has his team in the conference finals for the second consecutive season. Although some of his peers labeled him the most overrated player in the league, Haliburton consistently puts the Indiana Pacers in a position to win. When it comes to making players around him better, Haliburton has proven to be one of the best shot-creators and playmakers at the point guard position. Mitchell and Cunningham are in two different positions right now. Whereas Cunningham emerged as a first-time All-Star this season and turned things around in Detroit, Mitchell is an experienced star in this league that has something to prove because he’s struggled to get his teams past the conference semifinals. Some of Mitchell’s best years are ahead of him, and the Cleveland Cavaliers are coming off a year in which they won 64 games. That is why Mitchell finished fifth in the MVP voting this season. Mitchell looked like an MVP candidate this season, and he will be playing with a chip on his shoulder next year when the Cavs look to get revenge. Is there any other American-born player who could find themselves in the NBA MVP race going up against all of the dominant international forces? Well, what about Cooper Flagg? The soon-to-be first pick in the 2025 NBA Draft will join Anthony Davis and Kyrie Irving on the Dallas Mavericks. Flagg has been labeled as a generational talent who already opened many star’s eyes when he played with the USA Basketball Select Team last summer ahead of the Olympics. Although it will be tough for him to become the Mavs’ best player alongside Davis in the frontcourt, Flagg has the talent and mentality to be in the MVP race someday. However, don’t expect the young star to enter the league and immediately stake his claim as one of the best players. It will be a few years until Flagg fully enters the MVP conversation. Several American-born MVP candidates exist in the NBA. However, the list of international talents in the league continues to grow, and those international stars who have already won the MVP award aren’t going anywhere. The MVP drought for Americans now stands at seven years. Looking ahead to the 2025-26 NBA season, it is unlikely that the MVP streak for international players get snapped.